The campaign signs downtown seem tired now, irrelevant. They stand in snow banks, reminding us of the recent, exciting past. Yet the dirty snow beneath them looks dirtier, now that the politically supercharged atmosphere is gone for another four years.

New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary is over, with John McCain and Hillary Clinton hoping their wins here will translate into momentum through the nominating process. They hope we're a springboard to the White House.

We'll watch. We'll wait. We'll see.

Meanwhile, we return to the background. Back to snowstorms and the Patriots and high gas prices and normalcy. Back to relative obscurity when it comes to the national landscape.

Some of us are happy to see the crowd leave. Others enjoyed the attention, feeding off the energy.

Here's one man's view of the good and the bad, five points for each after a dizzying process that is truly unique to our state.

The good

• The buzz that electrified the city and the entire state was loud and clear.

For months, presidential candidates and the national media converged on a place many couldn't find on a U.S. map. This process put us on that map, every four years.

Perhaps you saw yourself on one of the TV networks, carrying a sign or whooping it up as though you were at a Springsteen concert.

Perhaps someone like former New Hampshire resident Carl Cameron, a Fox News political analyst, asked you for your view on health care.

Our views counted. Our state mattered. The rallies and town-hall meetings close to home, at Bread and Chocolate, at the State House, at Concord High, were exhilarating.

So was the confluence of supporters downtown. Watching the dynamics when followers of Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and McCain met in the streets was surreal.

• The evolution of our independent spirit, culminating with victories by Clinton and McCain in the primary, was inspiring.

We didn't care that McCain's campaign was nearly dead last summer, or his view on taxes and immigration ran counter with the Republican base.

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